Barbara Gibb
| birth_date = | birth_place = Bolton, Manchester, England, UK | occupation = Singer, housewife | nationality = British | spouse = Hugh Gibb | parents = Ernest Pass Nora Pass (née Lynch) | children = Lesley, Barry, Robin, Maurice and Andy }} Barbara Gibb (née Pass; 17 November 1920) is the mother of English musicians Barry, Robin, Maurice and Andy Gibb. She is also a big band singer. Genealogy and background Barbara's father, Ernest Pass is the son of warehouse man, James Pass and his wife Mary Ann Crompton. Mary Ann is the daughter of Thomas Crompton, born in Worsley in 1834. The 1851 census features that Thomas living with his parents Robert and Sarah and his five sisters. The whole family are recorded as cotton workers, even the youngest sister Hannah who was only 10 years old. The cotton industry was booming in the 1850s in Lancashire, with Manchester developing into an important commercial city. Thomas escapes life in the cotton mills by learning a trade and by the 1861 census he is now a clogger and shoe maker. Barbara's mother, Nora was the daughter of Irish-born James Lynch and his wife Cecilia Jennings from Stockport. Cecilia was a mid-wife in the early 1900s, and Barbara's son Robin will be discovering why she was summoned to appear before the Midwives Penal Board. She was born to Ernest and Nora Pass (née Lynch) in Bolton, district of Manchester. Marriage to Hugh Gibb and children She was also described as a "big band singer" in Bee Gees-related literature. She met Hugh Gibb in 1941 in a Manchester ballroom as she explained: "We met at a dance in Manchester at Stretford Trades and Labour Club. He was a band leader there and I used to go dancing with friends, and that's how i met him. He came down and danced with me and that was it, we just went on from there." On 12 January 1945 their first child was born, Lesley Barbara Gibb. Later, the Gibbs moved to Scotland where Hugh was offered a job by Mecca at the Palais in Edinburgh. When World War II came to the end of summer in 1945, the Gibbs returned to Manchester as she recalled "We went back and stayed with my mother in Stretford and then Hughie was offered the job at the Douglas Bay Hotel and that's when we went to the Isle of Man, However, he played at the Alexandra Hotel for old Mr. Raineri first and then he played for Mrs. Leslie Raineri at the Douglas Bay Hotel". She told Bernie Quayle, a Manx disc jockey. The family's first home in the Isle of Man capital of Douglas was a little house. While Hugh was performing in clubs in Isle of Man, She stayed at home looking after the children: "Lesley was 17 months and Barry was a new baby. Most of the time, Hughie was working, I didn't see much of him, You know, he was up there the Raineri hotel complex all the time. I couldn't go out as much as my husband could because I had the children". When Barry was two years old, he was injured in a near fatal accident which would seriously affect his development as Barbara explained: "He was only a baby then, he was only a little baby". Barbara also told Bernie Quayle about that accident: "We lived at Strand Street at that time, I'd just made the tea, I put it on the table and he pulled the chair up and climbed on it, pulled the tea cosy off and pulled the whole thing all over him. He was in a terrible state". Barry was rushed to Nobles Hospital with serious scalding and fell into a coma for a short while. It was a terrifying time for the Gibb family. Later years In November 1971, Barbara and Hugh moved to Ibiza, Spain with Andy and their adopted daughter, Beri. Barbara said about Andy: "He never grew up. He was like Peter Pan. He was just like a little boy all of his life. He was a baby all his life". Andy had married and divorced his Australian sweetheart Kim Reeder in 1978, the same year their daughter, Peta, was born as Barbara explained: "Andy wanted to see Peta, but her family wouldn't let him write to her or send a Christmas present. It hurt." She says she knew her son's affair with actress Victoria Principal in the early '80s would end in heartache as she explained: "He was obsessed with her, but she didn't treat him well." Andy eventually went into rehab twice. His mother went with him to Narcotics Anonymous meetings and family therapy at the Betty Ford Center, and he was, ironically, clean of drugs for a year before he died in 1988 of heart failure. "But the damage had been done. The doctors told me that was drugs". With Andy's death, three years later, Barbara's husband, Hugh died and many believed it was a broken heart over his son. By the early '90s, Maurice was sober, the boys were all happily married and raising families, Barbara says that she had, on some level, made her peace with Andy's death when Maurice was hospitalized in Miami with stomach pains in January 2003. He suffered a heart attack before surgery to remove an intestinal blockage and died three days later at the age of 53. Both Barry and Robin withdrew from performing and according to Barbara, the entire family is still raw with grief: "It's been a sad and hard year, but you have to keep going, I know that is what Maurice would have wanted". At the Diabetes Research in Miami, Barry sang "Send in the Clown" as a tribute to Maurice and Barbara tried to leave the room as Noeleen Batley: "She said 'I have to go. I don't think I can handle this' and I said 'No, stay and listen. Maurice is up there watching' She stayed, but she was really overcome". Sharon Krum told Barbara if the extraordinary joy she has garnered from her sons' success: In 2012, she flew to England from Florida and joins Robin's daughter, Melissa and his son, Spencer, as Robin's condition worsened when he suffered from pneumonia and drifted into a coma. The Gibb family's relationship with other people Joan and Ted Hill In 1952, the family relocated to 43 Snafell Road in Willaston, which become their home for the next two years before the family moved back to England, their neighbors, Joan and Ted Hill, became close friends of the family. Ted was a merchant seaman, but his job was later ended and was elected to Douglas Town Council and later became the Mayor of the Borough. Joan also recalled that Barry, Robin and Maurice loved their jam butties as she explained: "I must have made hundreds for them, but that's the way it was, kids were in and out of everyone's houses, we all chipped in to help each other". On 2 June 1953, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was televised on which the Gibbs watch on their 12 inch black and white television. Later that day, a street party was held in a street called Keppel Road as Joan Hill reflected: "When I look back at those days, I realize how very kind and generous the Gibb family were, and from what I'm told, they're still the same." Marie Beck and Helen Kenney Another neighbor of the Gibbs from Willaston named Marie Beck, who was a friend of Barbara (and Barbara's sister, Peggy). But Beck passed away in 1995. Beck's friend Helen Kenney was living in Douglas Head, was a visitor of Beck's. Kenney recalls about the twins: References Category:1920 births Category:Living people Category:British people of Irish descent Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English singers Category:Big band singers Category:People associated with the Bee Gees Category:People from Bolton